LG has continued to offer more modular phones that appeal to those offended by Samsung's move to unibody devices. A new leak from VentureBeat's Evan Blass (AKA @evleaks) claims that the G5 will take things a step further by adding a "Magic Slot" for installing new hardware modules, as well as a secondary display a la the V10. The report also backs up a few details we've heard before.

The VentureBeat report agrees with previous leaks that the G5 will have a slightly smaller 5.3-inch 1440p display, presumably to make room for the secondary screen in a smaller footprint than the V10. The G5 also borrows from the V10 in the camera department. The V10 has two front-facing cameras for super-wide-angle images, but the G5 will have that configuration on the back, capable of 135-degree captures. It'll have a fingerprint sensor in the same location on the back as the V10 too.

LG will allegedly reduce the battery size to 2800mAh from 3000mAh in the G4. The inclusion of a more efficient Snapdragon 820 processor might make up for that, though. This will be paired with 3GB of RAM, according to the leak.

As for that Magic Slot, it's not clear how it will work. LG apparently hopes to sell a range of accessories that plug into the G5 including a 360-degree camera, an audio amp, and a physical keyboard. The location and configuration of this port was not made clear in the leak. If it's legit, it certainly sounds interesting.

It's better the the bullshit curve Samsung has been marketing, and from generation to generation been less noticeable but more advertised. Lol

NotSamsungHater

Which one looks better. Ticker display or curved screen?

Nicholas C

What looks better? the curve. What isn't annoying gimmicky piece of shit that is actually functional? The ticker display. Form follows function and the function of a curved display is 50% gimmick and 50% retards thinking its eye candy.

Chris

Shrinking batteries these companies just don't fucking get it. I'm so sick of this crap. And it'll probably be non removable too. Dumb asses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And didn't evleaks have some crazy life ending disease and retire from leaking? What happened to that?

ASYOUTHIA

I see it being removable, then again, no if the all metal design rumor holds true

senor_heisenberg

Didn't HTC used to have a plastic flap that would flip open and allowed the battery to slide out on some of there older aluminum phones? Some OEMs already put a tiny bit of plastic on the back. So it would be cool to see something like that on phones with a metal body.

It can be metal and removable at the same time. A bunch of phones back in the day were made that way.

ASYOUTHIA

I remember the AT&T Hipster TroII Carwash having the Vivid that had a removable battery that had a metal back piece

Nicholas C

200mAh isn't really much, if the 820 is as efficient as we are told it should outlast an 810 with 3000mAh

kamiller42

Customers want better battery life. If the 820 efficiency evens out the reduction of battery capacity, that does not improve anything. It's running in place. Longer battery life means getting life on battery longer than what's currently available.

Outside of the slightly smaller battery and possible lack of an SD card, I'm intrigued.

marcusmarcus2

Probably can add the SD card slot back to it with additional purchase of an SD card slot Magic Slot module. :|

ASYOUTHIA

Do NOT scale the battery back!

shadowx360

Do these OEMs never run surveys of what their customers actually want? Like a larger battery and not some gimmicky feature like a second display? Every generation they've told us SOT will remain the same due to processor enhancements and every year I just want a larger battery and a higher SOT. Magic Port sounds like another way for them to sell overpriced accessories.

Neptune PBUH

Nexus 5x is the answer to life, the universe and everything.

Mayoo

Inb4 Nexus42

catalysto

Also, 6P.

Lexster

Did you not read that it is optional? If not, you should probably read the article again.

Z3TA2

The accessories are optional, the smaller battery isn't, he wants a bigger one.

Pretty much lol but that means the article is doing its job lol it hooked him in

someone755

Did you know that the fact it's optional doesn't matter?
Idiots will still buy it, making LG's genius leaders think this is something people actually want. Just like every Razer keyboard post-Cherry MX, just like subscriptions you have to pay for to play multiplayer games on consoles, and apparently, just like how Samsung decided to put tiny batteries in their flagship.

Nobody buys these products because of these (objectively crap) features, yet corporate masterminds obviously believe these new features are great (else they wouldn't still be doing it).

DuckingGold

Did you know it's all speculation, you twat?

someone755

Hey thanks for the insult, really puts you in a good light.
But to answer your question, this is evleaks. Blass is rarely wrong in his speculation, so I have good reason to believe this is very near the truth.

Gjorgi Lazarovski

He was completely wrong on many occasions in the past

someone755

I'm not saying he's always right but he's more right than he is wrong.

d

The guy who insults anyone who buys a phone with a feature that he doesnt like is upset that he got insulted? What kind of twat are you?

someone755

I'm saying the people who buy the device for this feature specifically are idiots.
I'm not upset I'm getting insulted, I'm upset because you're clearly part of the group described above.

I'm saying this is going to be yet another proprietary standard that'll either get replaced by an incompatible one next year or ditched because people won't like it.
If you want a world where every single thing is non-exchangeable and of proprietary nature, be my guest, but that's not the world I hope to die in.

d

If people buy them, then it is indeed something that people want. I seems some idiots confuse what they want with what the general public wants.

someone755

You seem to misunderstand. Maybe try not to include yourself into the idiots I mentioned in my other comment, eh?
People bought the Galaxy S6. Is anyone happy with the smaller battery? No. People did not buy it for the small battery.
Same thing with Razer keyboards, the new switches suck but the keyboard as a whole has certain features people like.

The V10 2nd display has generally been considered a good addition, and the V10 is selling well. So, what exactly are they going to survey?

C64

I think it looks ugly and makes the phone longer

ssj4Gogeta

Not to mention they're pulling an Apple here with a proprietary slot. All those accessories will work just fine with a USB connection.

jonathan3579

It is with great pleasure that I say fuck Evan Blass.

someone755

Context? Or are you just pissed at him because the phone seems to be crap?

jonathan3579

I think he's an arrogant jerk. Although I won't argue that the phone seems to be crap! Lol

Evan Blass

He asked for some context, Jonathan Longoria, so it would have been informative to relay the fact that I blocked you on Twitter -- probably for the same type of crude/insulting discourse you've displayed here -- causing a bruised ego and the subsequent lashing out that that tends to incite.

jonathan3579

It really doesn't bother me that you blocked me (and others) on Twitter. The fact of the matter is that you ARE an arrogant jerk and I stand by what I said. In fact, I've seen plenty of people comment about how you blocked them for no good reason. You thinking my ego is bruised by your blocking me just goes to show how arrogant you truly are.

Evan Blass

Well you're right about that: I have blocked a lot of people, 447 of them according to Twitter. Many of them, like you, are self-delusional enough to think that it was "for no good reason." But the reason for most, and I'm sure you as well, is that they thought it was okay to enjoy the free information they were receiving from me day in and day out, but to also disparage me, call something fake, or otherwise interject themselves in a way that was abusive or profane.

The common thread is a sense of entitlement, but no sense of obligation, to the sources which work to deliver you free news. One only need look through the comments sections right here at AP to see example after example of people on this one-way street. But AP has employees to pay and servers to run, so they tolerate your slights because they need your eyeballs. I don't.

You have every right to think whatever you want of me, and to call me a jerk or whatever. But you sure as fuck aren't going to be allowed to continue following me.

jonathan3579

Right.. So what you're saying is that you don't like being told you're wrong or your leaks suck. Got it.

If you have such a problem with giving free information to people, maybe you should sell it or get a new hobby, job, or whatever you want to call it. I've got a newsflash for you: You're a has been, a wash, and most of your followers (myself included) lost faith after the M9 leak which you obviously didn't like being criticized about. Get over yourself.

Maybe you should try eating a slice of humble pie and admit that mistakes are occasionally made rather than acting like the center of the leaking universe.

jonathan3579

Don't worry, Evan.. You can delete your comments but screenshots work just fine on my phone. Next time you should control your mouth if you don't want to make someone's case... Which you did.

sup

Well, that escalated (kinda) quickly.

jonathan3579

I obviously hit a nerve or in the words of the great egotistical Evan Blass, I bruised his ego. :P

Evan Blass

Hey, congrats on the screenshots, some really damning material in there. You didn't catch the one where I sounded outrageously egotistical, unfortunately! Anyway, if you get a chance to pull yourself away from internet archival, feel free to comment on my latest scoop: http://www.techmeme.com/#a160104p18 (TM missed the credibility memo you sent out, apparently!)

So you're still deleting comments as I reply to them? You really are a pathetic spineless little creep, aren't you? It's funny how you said I can have the last word yet here you are coming back over and over again. You seem to have gotten your panties in a wad because I'm not praising your name and your word like the other pleebs.

Evan Blass

Hey, have you thought about how you'll explain your trollish behavior to your little girl the day she starts reading your vulgar, antagonistic comments online? "Daddy, why did you say those horrible things to all those people??" Stay classy, Jonny.

Timothy Vreeland

You blocked him on Twitter, then you come here and reply to him? Seems like you didn't really care about ignoring him, you just wanted to feel like you had power over him. Someones got a big head...

Evan Blass

Um, I came here to read the coverage of my story, and saw a comment from someone trying to reestablish his own sense of power, as he did when he blocked me in retaliation.

jonathan3579

He deleted all his comments which is just the kind of cowardice action I would expect from him.

David Onter

The Nowwherelse french guy is much worse...
So incredibly full of himself it hurts. The sort of guy that deletes the leaks that turned out to be wrong and then says his accuracy rate is 100%.

jonathan3579

I really can't speak much about him other than the fact that I have seen both him and TK talking on Twitter and G+ which may or may not say something.

I don't think so. I'm not sure how robust Android's USB-C support is, but I'm suspecting that at this stage, outside of things like audio and video and charging, it might not be fully prepared to use it in this way. Also, it's not going to be a very physically secure/stable way to mount an accessory.

Miku is Best Vocaloid

I read that as Magic Slut Expansion Port for a second and wondered why would it need a fleshlight port.

Blame the marketing department! Those guys are from another planet. Those guys are not technical and never listen the people that actually use the devices!

How hard was to come with the idea for metal unibody with metal, removable back (reportedly will be now available in LG G5). What else? 2k display on 5.5" display is great! Stick with it - no need for 4 or 8k on such small screen. Don't bother to use OLED until the problem with burning "blue" is resolved. Start phone options with 32GB (base), 64GB(base + $30) and then 128GB for (base + $70), 256GB (base + 150) AND then you can say bye-bye to those slow microSD cards. On the camera department - keep the improvements - you almost nail it with the last one (G4). Snapdragon 820 is a good start. What about the battery? Can you make 3500 or 3800mAh on those big 5.5" phone? Don't worry - there is no need to make the phone thinner!

The marketing department estimates the market and decides what is needed and what will sell better. So, the marketing is the one that does the order to the R&D team. You can think of the Marketing department as a boss of the R&D team.
It sounds logical, because the Marketing says: Ok, we decided that we can sell 10 mil devices if they look and have this, this and that, BUT if you make it like this we will be able to sell only 3 mil.

Sure, it is not hard to make the phone as I asked couple of months before, especially for that price asked currently for all flagships. HTC 10 almost perfectly nailed. And if a company like Blu can produce a flagship like BLU VIVO 5 for less than $200 then everyone, like Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony should be able to do a bit better for the price of currently asked $600 for a flagship smartphone!!

I think you're confusing the marketing department with various business strategy departments. The marketing department reports back to them in various ways, and can influence design, but product strategy is not under marketing.

Flyies

In my company (big one) they call it Marketing department - the one that makes those "business strategy" decisions - what the product to look like, how to behave and what features to have - all based on their estimate of the market, BUT I guess in other companies this my be called Business unit or something else.
However, my point is, that most probably the ones that fails are not the engineers, but those, from the top, that have no idea what the customer really wants.

northstar17

Tough crowd...these new features sound good to me. The V10 2nd screen is pretty good, I tried a demo at BB. And the V10 is selling well so that tells us the feature is perhaps helping sales. This magic slot...we'll see. Everyone was all hyped about Project Aura yet LG cant do something similar?

Did the article say it wouldn't have USB-C? Or are you assuming that this would be better handled by USB-C? Because I feel like they provide very different solutions. This "slot" is likely built for the accessory to actually mount to it in a stable way, which USB-C wouldn't.

René Simonsen

I am assuming this would be better/about the same with USB-C. And regarding mounting it in a stable way, that could be done with USB-C as well. They still have control over the position of the USB-C port, and how they design their accessories.

I don't feel like a position for a USB-C port that's good for charging and normal use would also be good for this type of accessory. I'm picturing Handspring Visor-like add-ons, which mount well to it, and they'd need the port to be within the mounting area. If it's just along the bottom edge, as is appropriate for charging, that would be bad for an accessory.

Also, it would mean UNPLUGGING any such add-on every time you want to charge or sync data. Even worse.

Sergii Pylypenko

Please, let this Magic Slot support USB host mode, and let us have AOSP version of their ROM, because Android dev boards, which have extra USB ports, invariably suck with their half-baked ROMs.

Errol Macy

I loved my g3. Still love my g4.
But if they get rid of the removable battery they will lose me. No matter how good a phone they build.
Another bitch about the g5 rumors.
For hells sake get over the premium metal body's bull shit already.
What kind of an idiot wants to spend extra money for a metal body. Too have his antenna signal weakened or put on the outside of the phone aka Apple. Btw Apple's antenna still isn't that good.
Please LG don't ruin a perfectly good power user phone. For so called premium materials.

LG bruhs...gimme that exact G2 style phone, just updated a little. 5.5" screen, 2560x1440 resolution, 3 or 4 GeeBeez of RAM, and instead of 8.9mm thickness with 3,000mah battery like the G2, make it 11mm thick with 4,000mah battery. Don't want a 6mm thick phone with weak 2000+ mah battery like the SGS6.

I like my phones like I like my women...kinda thick with a lotta juice!

This 'slot' to plug modules into sounds interesting... hopefully it's something cool and useful. I'm coming into a couple thousand $$$ within a month, gonna be watching this bad boy.

Jean-Patrick Millette

@quadkore hey this is jpx from urban terror, saw your post on here about ''jpx''. I can't reply to that post or direct message you for some reason. Who are you?

Jean-Patrick Millette

@quadkore I need to contact you. Urban terror.

instinct

I am mostly happy about the reduced screen size. I am happy with my G4 just wish it was smaller.

C64

* Scratches LG from new phone list *

Dave

Why reduce the battery? Even if you have more efficient CPU this does not mean is too big. Many people will be pissed. I do not care much for battery as for it to be removable and for SD card slot but the capacity will drive mad many.

JG

Wouldn't the USB port that's already on every single phone (and tablet) count as a "magic slot"? It's designed to bring data into the phone. An add on could easily be designed that slides onto the USB slot and adds a 360 camera, or whatever else. The add-on could have its own USB port as well, allowing the phone to be charged with the add-on still in place.

I know Google abandoned wireless charging because it added too many Zs to the new Nexus phones... But I'd be fine adding a few extra Ys to mine by plugging a wireless charge dongle in. Especially if it also had a microSD card slot as well...

The headphone jack could work as a magic slot as well (that's where credit card readers usually plug in).

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Ticker display, huh? So like LG V10, pretty much? Nice, that seems a way better solution that Samsung's curved display

the closed pistachio

I see all these people posting meaningful comments discussing or complaining about important consumer electronics related topics, but all I can think is YAAY PHYSICAL KEYBOARDS :D